If the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wants to scrutinize a person or organization, it must meet certain legal standards demonstrating evidence to support suspicion of criminal activity before opening an investigation.
Well, sort of. It turns out that if the feds can't meet the bar to justify an investigation, they can move ahead by calling their surveillance efforts "assessments." Then, they can use the assessments to justify full investigations—assuming FBI agents care to follow the rules to begin with, which is not always the case. That's led to the feds snooping on roughly 1,100 religious figures, journalists, activists, and public officials in recent years.
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